Nutty rightwing remark of the year

December 19, 2013 - Harry Eagar

So, there's this Palin-huggin', gun-huggin' teevee celebrity, Phil Robertson, and he, like me, grew up in the South, working alongside people with black skin. (In my case, not alongside, exactly, but subordinate, but close enough.)

Phil has some obnoxious opinions and a folksy, obnoxious way of expressing them, but, hey, a rightwing Southern redneck with folksy ways, not news.

Robertson, who is about my age, never noticed any negative feelings about conditions in the South among his dark-skinned co-workers. He has a quaint, folksy way of expressing this:

“Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues,”

A number of white folks sprang to Robertson's defense, including his friend Sarah Palin. So far as the record goes, none of them ever heard any black folks singin' the blues either.

Article Comments

OneAikea

OneAikea

Dec-24-13 6:14 PM

I lived on Mainland for three years. Virginia, and Mississippi. I was there during race discremination between Whites and Blacks. I was a neutral color, so I was not bothered. I met many people like Phil and many not like Phil. Honest and hard working. I did seem some tension between rich whites and poor whites. Blacks as well. White trash was given to the poor whites and Uncle Tom by poor Black families to the rich Blacks.

Like in Hawaii, we use the word Ha'ole meaning without breath or foreigner. Many consider that word derogatory. Pending on how said. Many Caucasian transplants act out of line, thinking those born and raised here are stupid. Like anywheres there are good and bad. In retaliation, they get their buts kicked. Some are in dire need to get theirs.

HarryEagar

Dec-24-13 8:40 AM

When I said Phil Robertson is about my age, I mean he is exactly my age, do during the period of his youth in Louisiana when he claims the darkies were happy, black people could not vote, black people were terrorized by local government (Plaquemines Parish in duck country was the most notorious county in the South, worse even than any place in Mississippi), black children in Louisiana were provided with public schools far below what white kids got, etc. etc.

Robertson is an old-fashioned racist. The people defending him are either too ignorant to know that what he said was a racist lie; or they agree with his racist views.

There is no third option.

I'd like to think that most of Robertson's defenders are just ignoramuses who have forgotten or never knew what Louisiana was like in the 50s, but I do believe that most of them are just plain racists. Let each examine his conscience.